"In the eye of the beholder" syndrome. . .there is a relationship between the amount of dogma held and having low threshold of what is 'controversial'. . .

Hey, your momma, mother f***er!

Your right Lawrence, a review should just about persuade someone to pursue what was originally being debated over. Whether it's a review about a movie, think about that for a moment, if you hear a Movie Reviewer like Sandy Klien say that a movie is not that great, the power of suggestion is pretty strong. The man is considered an expert in the movie reviewers arena, so I agree your review should be compelling.

This is really a proxy for getting people outside of RIA to link to you. Links are what make your pages and lists show up in Google. If people are reading your reviews, and you are promoting your reviews outside of RateItAll, it's a good idea to write controversial reviews. If not, I wouldn't worry about it.